


yesterday i learned about love

by alectrona



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, beautifulwonwooday truly a beautiful boy :(, happy birthday wonwoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 11:10:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11530992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alectrona/pseuds/alectrona
Summary: jeon wonwoo is a curious being.aka the one with the bizarrely awkward and adorable alien.





	yesterday i learned about love

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday wonwoo!!!!!!!!!!! shoutout to @jeonstellation for allowing me to use her cactus as a side cameo lol.

 

 

Jeon Wonwoo is a curious being.

When Soonyoung first saw him in campus, the round-glassed boy looked so disoriented reading at the campus’ signboards (it wasn't complicated, really, just library on your right and strategy lab on your left). Judging by the messiness of his hair, Soonyoung assumed that he must've been a freshman, unaccustomed to life without dear mothers making breakfast and fixing your hair before going to school.

Feeling a heightened sense of chivalry, Soonyoung made his way to help the young man ( _the fact that he's cute is totally unrelated to my act of kindness,_ Soonyoung thought to himself (a lie, of course)).

“Can I help you?” he offered his warmest smile along with the assistance.

The young man returned his gaze, head tilted and lips slightly pouting, as if studying Soonyoung. They shared this awkwardness for quite a while — Soonyoung could only try giving a more reassuring smile while the other guy continued scanning his face. His eyebrows were raised and nose slightly scrunched at some point, and the self-conscious part inside Soonyoung thought _oh my God did I look like a creep_.

However, thanks to the young man's completely, wholly unexpected move of leaning into Soonyoung and _kissing_ Soonyoung on the lips, Soonyoung didn't feel like _he's_ the creep.

“Geez, man, what is your problem?” exclaimed Soonyoung after he regained his footing.

“Greetings! I do not have any problem at the time being, although I'd be indebted to you if you can kindly show me the place where you archive information about earth's fauna?”

“The fuck.”

 

\---

 

So Soonyoung learned that there is an advanced lifeform outside earth. He also learned that the young man who has the audacity to kiss random strangers on the lips is, apparently, an alien. He also learned that he can acquire new languages by lip-locking a native speaker. He also learned that it is his mission to collect information about other lifeforms in the universe, and Wonwoo the alien is tasked in the terrestrial zoology department. He also learned that Wonwoo has a mystifying dark green iris, has very slender and delicate hands, is allergic to seafood, tends to pout his lips and look up to his upper right when he thinks hard, scrunches his nose when he laughs, and smells nice after shower.

“But,” his words barely understandable amidst the cookie munching, “why do you fund more on military development than space exploration? Deep sea studies? Archeology?”

“I don't know, politics and such, I guess. Some things are not meant to be understood, Wonwoo.”

“I beg to differ, Soonyoung. You have to understand the way the world works so that you can eventually understand your reason of existence and understand yourself. The Jeonese people put the search for knowledge and truth as our main reason of being, and we never dwell into intergalactic battle and allocated our resources for space explorations instead.”

“Yeah, Woo, thanks for reminding me that earthlings are inferior beings.”

“Your people aren't inferior beings. Saturnese is even more stoic and intelligent than Jeonese.”

“Bro, I'm not sure how that is supposed to be comforting but thanks for trying.”

“Earthlings are very advanced on emotions and empathic development, however. They are curious subjects with tremendous capacity of loving — very endearing. Well, if you ignore the massive killing parts, that is.”

“Hey, having to defend the human race, we aren't always awful people, Woo. I skip class and sometimes my essay is in the upper limit in Turnitin but well, I'm not _that_ awful.”

“Of course you are not. Aren't you the definition of endearment yourself?” Wonwoo said, and as if his words alone aren't enough to stain a pink hue on Soonyoung’s cheeks, he added a sincere smile on top of it.

Soonyoung just smirked and mumbled some fuzzy words as he walked to fetch another cup of warm milk to go with Wonwoo's cookies.

 

\---

 

“Yesterday I learned that on Earth, the act of putting your lips on someone else's is considered an act of affection.”

“Hm?” Soonyoung responded nonchalantly, eyes fixated on the stack of A1 papers laid on his desk. The deadline for his final coursework in Architecture school is approaching, which is why his flat looks like a shipwreck the past few weeks.

“Kissing? Is what you guys call it? Your friend Seokmin told me.”

In a speed of light, Soonyoung turned to Wonwoo (he spraned his muscles a little as a result).

“He kissed you?” a sharp pang of surprise struck Soonyoung, “ _that little fucker_.”

“Oh no no, he didn't. We were just discussing about how earthlings love.”

Soonyoung shot a look and made a mental note to check with Seokmin the accuracy of this account and its subliminal meaning, coming from an oblivious, lanky alien.

“I then told him that I kissed you on the lips when we first met.”

“Woo— you did _what_?”

“That day when we first met, remember? I gave you a kiss on the lips to learn your language? He only replied with a sardonic laugh. It was rather peculiar.”

Soonyoung then made a mental note to not see Seokmin at all.

 

\---

 

Six months of answering to _what's this_ and _why is it like that_ and saving him from unintentionally awkward social interactions, Soonyoung has grown very, terribly fond of Wonwoo. His never-ending wonder on the most seemingly mundane thing (like, a lamppost) and cluelessness are _so_ adorable, that Soonyoung often finds himself smiling at the thought of it in the least convenient timing — such as when he's walking to the bus station, returning textbooks to the librarian, and dining out with this bastard of a best friend Lee Jihoon.

“You are desperately in love and it's sickening to watch,” they've been best friends for as long as he can remember but Jihoon’s snarky remarks can still sometimes sting.

“No I'm not, and aren't you also _very_ desperately in love with Seokmin, too, so shut up.”

“At least he's human, dumbass. Do you even know whether he's capable of love and other emotions?”

Soonyoung shrugged. He's lying if he says he has never asked that question himself. Not when it's something that kept him awake at night, wondering whether he _feels_ love and longingness — he conceptually _understands_ love, that Soonyoung is sure, but _feel_?

“I think so? We bought a cactus last month. Then in an episode of drunken nights, these bastards fratboys Mingyu and Minghao toppled it over. Can you believe that Wonwoo actually cried _real_ tears, like, his eyes were watery and he really wept. Paraphrasing him, he was mourning the loss of a beautiful and blooming life. A cactus, Jihoon! If he can love a cactus I'm sure he can love me alright.”

“Who the hell cries over a dead plant—”

“He has a sensitive, fragile heart, Jihoon, don't mock him that way.”

“Oh dear Father in heaven please spare me from this lovebird. Can you pass me that rice please, thanks.”

“That's your third bowl, the heck? Anyway, do you want to know what we named the little cactus—”

“That's it I'm calling for the bill. Auntie!”

“We named it Nunu, good gracious isn't that the cutest name you've ever heard?”

“AUNTIE!”

 

\----

 

Wonwoo insisted that they bake baklavas. Soonyoung protested because 1) the last time he tried to bake something he mistook flour for icing sugar 2) the time before that he burned the oven and almost caused a fire in the building 3) he most certainly should be banned from the kitchen. Baklavas are godsent but this is a _really_ bad idea.

For the past weeks, Wonwoo has dragged Soonyoung to all sorts of world restaurants (he had tikka masala for dinner on Monday, a plate of pad thai lunch on Tuesday, calzones for Wednesday, and so on and so forth) because he had just finished a world culinary book and fell in love with cooking and how human’s love for cooking and feasting is shared across all different race and culture.

“I can try looking for a shop that sells baklava, Wonwoo, I seriously think this is one of your worst ideas just yet.”

“Soonie, it is a different experience, purchasing and making. You do not get to internalize the philosophy of baklava-making if you just purchase one.”

“Aside from it being very hard to make I don’t see any philosophy in making baklavas, Woo.”

“Ah, it’s fun nonetheless,” he said, flashing a smile so bright and heartwarming that Soonyoung is sure can persuade him into climbing Mount Everest if Wonwoo had wished him to.

Five hours, two trays of burnt baklavas (or whatever that sad puff pastries are supposed to be called), and a ten-minutes walk to a dessert shop later, they sat on Soonyoung’s rooftop hammock and shared a dozen of pistachio-flavored baklavas.

“Don’t you want to go visit Turkey, Soonyoung? I really want to people-observe there. It must be a very vibrant country. A lot of history too!”

“That’s country number seven on your list already.”

“It is? I can’t help it when earth has so many interesting places to visit.”

“Yeah, after England, France, Tanzania, Cambodia, Japan, and India,” Soonyoung said, closing his eyes and dozing off to the swaying motions and cool evening breeze hitting his face.

“Let’s go and travel the world, Soon-ah!”

 _Let’s go,_ Soonyoung thought to himself. It has been a little over a year since their encounter in the campus, a year of having Wonwoo crash-landed into his life (and into the mattress in the empty room in Soonyoung’s flat), and the more he spends time with Wonwoo, the more he hates how very little he understands him and his… _being_. Will he disappear one day? Can his mothership suddenly summons him? Does he love?

“Are you leaving, Wonwoo?”

“Excuse me?”

“I said,” Soonyoung shifted his position so that he leaned on his sides, facing Wonwoo, “are you leaving?”

“Leaving? Why? Do you not want me to be around? Have I been more of a nuisance to you?”

“Aren’t you in a mission? Terrestrial zoo or what have you? When will you finish your mission? Will you be going afterwards?”

“It’s terrestrial zoology, Soonie. And it’s ongoing, along with many other missions. I really like Earth, I hope I can stay long in here.”

“Is your life really just to complete missions, Wonwoo?”

Silence fell between them. Wonwoo tried to divert his gaze away from Soonyoung’s eyes, so he lazily trailed the patterns in the army green hammock.

“That is what I know how to do best my whole life.”

The cool evening breeze suddenly felt harsher, creeping into Soonyoung’s skin and bone.

“That is before I met you, I think? Isn’t it rather silly?”

His response piqued Soonyoung’s interest.

“I mean, now I want to go and see the world with you - well in practice I certainly need you to bridge me with the daily ways of the earthlings - and try all these curious things with you? I want to explore more with you, and _about_ you. It is silly and irrational, I know. But that’s how I have been feeling lately. It makes no utter sense”

When their gazes meet, Soonyoung can clearly see the genuine perplexity in Wonwoo’s eyes. This whole affair is of no expertise for the Jeonese boy, looking lost and clueless.

“Is this what is called being in love?”

They leaned closer towards each other. This close, Soonyoung observed how dark Wonwoo’s iris is, and how it has a yellowish hue in the middle. How there are marks on his nose bridge from the padding of his glasses. It feels electrifying when their lips touched (this time, fully aware and embraced), and at the same time it feels right. Though he is from many, many lightyears away, in that moment, there was no distance between them. In that moment, it felt like they are each other’s center of the universe and nothing else matters.

When they parted, Wonwoo ran his index finger on his lower lip. In his head, his life has been categorized into two: before kissing Soonyoung and after kissing Soonyoung. It felt weird because all Wonwoo can think of is to have Soonyoung’s lips pressed into his, to feel the slight pressure on his lower lip and feel Soonyoung’s breaths on his face, as he yearns for another kiss.

“Was that love?”

“No, silly. That was just a kiss. Love is… Love is patiently answering your oblivious questions day after day, and comforting you when your cactus died, and tirelessly listening to your hour-long stories about a star system I have never even dared to imagine. Love is what I felt for the past year. And love is what I’m feeling right now looking at you.”

Wonwoo cupped Soonyoung’s face and kissed him, this time more gently. His thumb ran on Soonyoung’s cheekbones to his temple, fully realizing and grasping how soft and supple they are.

“And what was that, Woo?”

“That, that was learning the language of love.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i always have trouble to end a story haha ;__; sorry for the awkwardness?
> 
> wonwoo the alien is very much inspired from [Teen Titans series' Starfire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4txmaKd40Do) u___u i love starfire


End file.
